Just as the Twitter situation couldn’t get any more dysfunctional, the social media company has begun begging their laid-off workers to come back. This comes after Elon Musk announced mass layoffs and workers were told to “work from home” and will find out about their future in the company via email.
Platformer journalist, Casey Newton, reported that now-fired employees were reached out by the company, asking them to return after they received emails that they’ve been laid off. He also shared a message from Twitter’s Slack account, telling former employees that they would put together names and rationales by Sunday.
“sorry to @everybody on the weekend but I wanted to pass along that we have the opportunity to ask folks that were left off if they will come back. I need to put together names and rationales by 4PM PST Sunday.
Former employees have filed a class action lawsuit to due to Twitter violating California’s labor laws, aka the WARN Act. This law requires companies with over 500 employees to provide at least 60-day notices before announcing closings and mass layoffs. According to Reuters, companies who violate this labor law would be penalized $500 per violation per day.
Some of the heavily affected departments during these layoffs were the company’s Human Rights and ethical A.I. team. Musk justified the massive cutbacks, claiming it was to save the company from losing “$4 million a day.”
At the end of the day, these layoffs, especially to the departments that were affected, are costing Twitter its brand trust. It’s currently unknown whether or not those laid-off employees will have their jobs back.